So you’re under 24 years old and you need to get insurance to cover you to drive a van. Well, the bad news is that, like car insurance, if you are lucky enough to be young in years you are sadly also deemed to be a bit too inexperienced to be a safe bet for many insurance companies. As a result, your premiums are likely to be higher than those for older drivers.
The good news is that there are ways you can help to get those insurance premiums down and make insuring a van for young drivers more affordable. Here we’ll explore some tips to help you to make your van insurance premium more affordable until you reach the ripe old age of 25!
Make use of telematics
First on the list is to consider how to prove that, although young, you can drive responsibly and safely. Here’s where a bit of technology can help in the shape of a little black box, which, when fitted to your vehicle, will monitor how you drive.
Many insurance companies offer reduced premiums to young drivers who fit a black box to their van. This allows the younger generation to step out from under the usual statistical data labelling (of being very inexperienced as a driver) and to get insurance based on how they actually drive.
Because black box technology or Telematics, to give it its proper title, is such a new technology, there are understandably a few worries about its use, so here’s a handy guide to what it will do and, more importantly, what it won’t do for you.
However, this may still not be enough to bring down the insurance premiums to an affordable level, especially at first, and if you are a very new and inexperienced driver. So what other options can you consider to try to reduce the amount you’ll have to pay to insure a young driver for a van? If you are lucky enough to be able to choose your van then this can be an area to reduce those costly premiums.
Choose a van from a lower insurance group
Vans, like cars, fit into groups for insurance purposes. Criteria such as their engine size, cost of parts as well as repairs, how fast they can go, their weight and how good their security is all play a part in deciding which group the vehicle belongs in. Parkers have a guide to the cheapest vans, both small and large, based on their insurance groups.
By picking a van from a lower insurance group you can reduce the cost of your insurance premiums; however you have to offset this by making sure that you get the right van for the job too. There’s no sense in buying an underpowered van if you are a delivery van driver in the hillier parts of the country or finding that you have to do twice as many trips because you can’t fit everything you need in because the van you bought is too small.
Fit additional security
You can also consider adding extra security devices to your van, such as a tracking device or immobiliser, although it is worth taking advice from your insurers on this as only some modifications are recognised and some may even increase the cost of your insurance.
In this article, Auto Express tackle the various types of security modifications you can fit to your van that will not only help to keep both your van and its contents safe but may help to reduce the cost of your insurance.
Shop around for the best insurance deal
Finally, as with all types of insurance, it’s worth shopping around for the lowest deals. Taking the time to compare van insurance through a comparison website such as Compare Van Insurance can help you to find the best insurance quote for your young van driver.
As with everything in life, there are no shortcuts and if something looks too good to be true you can bet your life that it probably is. Here’s a list of things to look out for and things that you should avoid doing to try to reduce those high premiums.
- Don’t be tempted to under insure your van just to get a cheaper quote. It’s not worth it in the long run and might even get you in trouble with the law. If you have to make a claim in the future and all is not as it should be, you may well find that you are not actually covered at all.
- Avoid going for a larger voluntary excess if you don’t have the means to pay this, should you need to make a claim. Voluntary excesses can be a good way to bring down your premiums as long as you have the money to back you up if you actually need to use it.
- Under no circumstances should you use ‘fronting’ as a tactic to get lower van insurance for a young driver. Whilst it may seem like an innocent and legitimate way for an older driver, usually a parent, to act as the main driver of a vehicle for the purposes of reducing the costs, it is likely to get you into hot water since the insurance company may refuse to pay out in any claim. At worst, it could land you all with a criminal record. Take a look at this guide from the RAC on fronting.
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